The Honest Case for Self-Catering
We’re not going to pretend hotels don’t have their appeal. Someone else makes the bed. There’s a bar downstairs. You don’t have to wash up. Fair enough.
But if you’re booking a holiday — particularly in the countryside, particularly with a family or a dog — a self-catering cottage offers something a hotel simply can’t. Here’s why we think it’s worth considering.
Space (The Big One)
A standard hotel room is about 25 square metres. That’s fine for sleeping, less fine for actually living in. A holiday cottage gives you a kitchen, a living room, bedrooms, and usually a garden or outdoor space. You can spread out. The children can play in another room. The dog can lie in front of the fire without blocking a hotel corridor.
Maple Cottage, for example, is a three-bedroom barn conversion with a separate conservatory, open-plan living space, and fireplaces. A family of six in a hotel would need at least two rooms. In a cottage, you’ve got a whole house.
Freedom
Hotels run on schedules. Breakfast is 7-10. Dinner is 6:30-9. Checkout is 11. A self-catering cottage runs on your schedule.
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Finding a dog-friendly hotel is possible but limiting. Many charge supplements, restrict access to certain areas, and make you feel like your dog is a problem. A dog-friendly cottage treats your dog as part of the household. They can sit on the sofa (we won’t tell), dry off by the fire, and have the run of the garden. Both Fern and Maple Cottage welcome dogs without restrictions or charges.
The Social Bit
There’s something about a cottage holiday that brings people together. Cooking a meal as a group, playing cards by the fire, arguing about whose turn it is to do the washing up — these are the bits you actually remember. Hotel holidays can be oddly isolating by comparison: everyone retreats to their separate rooms at the end of the evening.
When a Hotel Might Be Better
In the interest of fairness: hotels win if you genuinely don’t want to cook at all, if you want a spa, or if you’re after a single night’s stay where the logistics of a cottage don’t make sense. For anything longer than a night, though, a cottage is hard to beat.
Try a Cottage Holiday
If you’ve always booked hotels and never tried self-catering, a weekend break is a good way to test the waters. Our three cottages near Penrith offer different styles — from the characterful beams and fireplaces of Maple Cottage to the quirky riverside setting of Rittson Cottage. Book direct with Cottage Collection for the best rates and discover why so many of our guests never go back to hotels.